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NBC News/WSJ/Marist Poll Gets it Right

The results of the recent presidential election once again confirmed The Marist Poll is one of the nation’s premier research centers. Working with its media partners, NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, The Marist Poll accurately predicted the presidential contest in each of the battleground states of New Hampshire, Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, and Nevada. The poll was equally successful in calling key U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races.

This election cycle pollsters came under intense partisan attacks, but The Marist Poll remained true to its non-partisan, independent, scientific methodology. Marist Institute for Public Opinion Director Lee Miringoff, Marist Poll Director Barbara Carvalho, and their team – which guided hundreds of student interviewers, supervisors, and research assistants – kept their focus on producing accurate polls.

“I want to congratulate Lee, Barbara, and their team as well as NBC News and The Wall Street Journal for a successful partnership that produced accurate results,” said Marist College President Dennis Murray. “Since its founding 34 years ago as the first college-based poll to have undergraduate students participate in conducting survey research, The Marist Poll has taken a purely scientific approach to generating correct results. This election cycle, it came under fire for its methods from some who didn’t like those results. For tuning out the noise and focusing on producing quality work, we are truly proud of the entire Marist Poll team.”

The Marist Poll’s media partners were equally pleased with the results, which provided them with a sound basis for reporting and analysis that served their viewers and readers around the nation.

“Battleground states were the story we all saw unfold on election night,” said Jerry Seib, Washington bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal. “Thanks to our collaboration with Marist and NBC News, we gave our readers a very good, very accurate forecast of what was to come.”

The morning after Election Day, NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd graciously deflected praise for his accuracy in calling races to the Marist team. “A shout out to our NBC/WSJ state polling partner, Marist,” Todd said, on air. “Attacking pollsters became a parlor game for some; due is due.”

Just days before the election, veteran NBC journalist Tom Brokaw reflected in an interview with Alex Witt on the nature of modern polling, when there are so many, often conflicting, polls. “In the polling you’re seeing today,” Brokaw said, “you have to be a much more educated consumer. Which ones hold up?” Pointing out that, unlike The Marist Poll, many newer polls use “robocalls” that can only skim the surface of voter sentiment, he said that the NBC News/WSJ/Marist Poll is a good one. “It’s held up…because it’s in-depth.”

Real Clear Politics, a well-read political news website, chimed in on The Marist Poll’s success when Sean Trende, the site’s senior elections analyst tweeted, “…Marist has outdone Gallup. Hats off to Lee Miringoff and company.”

President Murray summed up the sentiments of the Marist community when he said, “If the Marist Poll was a baseball team, they’d be World Champions and Lee Miringoff would be MVP for batting a thousand. Congratulations to all associated with the poll.”